InsaneJournal

Hours. It had been hours. Terence wasn't quite sure when he'd switched from the desperate drive to gets things done that needed to be. He just knew that once Chris's body had been properly weighed down and dropped into the murky depths of the Thames, every ounce of energy had drained from his body. His focus disappeared, and he was flooded with a realization of exactly what had happened.

Chris was dead. Chris was dead. While the eldest Carmichael might not have been one of his best friends, even Terence had to admit that it had been next to impossible to dislike the guy. And he'd died... over what amounted to a fancy fucking tea set.

Terence had never thought these sort of retrieval jobs would even be especially dangerous, much less fatal, but now...

Dazed, caked in river mud, and carrying two magicked cases, Terence apparated with what little energy he could muster, ignoring the slight splinch of muscle and skin pulling away from his shoulder blade. Stumbling, landing in his bedroom and dropping the cases as he did, his wife was at his side in a moment, wand out and a pursed look on her face. She wanted to ask. He could tell she wanted to, even as she shifted her wand over the wounds to seal them up and stop the bleeding.

"I screwed up, Sher," Terence whispered, slumping his forehead against her shoulder. "I should have been faster... If I'd only been faster..."

"Terry, breathe and start at the beginning."

"Well..." Terence sighed, a slightly broken laugh a second later. "Good news is, I got the china. So Elle's not got anything to complain about for a change."

Sheryl shifted, lifting Terence's head from her shoulder so that she could look him in the eye, his features softening and shifting from confused to concerned as she noticed the oh, so rare emotions brimming in him, "And the bad news?"

Another broken laugh, and Terence couldn't help it back any longer, tears welling up and pouring out of him as the exhaustion, shock, and grief hit him hard all at once, "That's going to take a bit longer to explain."